It’s Just Not Cricket!

Abstract

The world of cricket was stunned by the ‘spot-fixing’ allegations against three Pakistani cricket team players during one of the most important games in the cricket calendar for the nation in the summer of 2010. News of the World, a British tabloid, conducted a sting operation against Pakistani players, trapping them into deliberately bowling no-balls during a match against England, an illegal practice known as spot-fixing. The ‘bookies’ take bets for such events happening during a game, and gamblers can make substantial sums of money if they have foreknowledge. The players were offered payments for these actions to be performed during the game, which may or may not impact the eventual outcome of the game but can entail serious monetary benefits for the bookies and their allies. The discovery of these events raised several questions regarding the governance and ethics of the sport. The ICC and British courts subsequently found the trio guilty of corruption and were banned and imprisoned. This case aims to analyse theories and concepts in ethics using this well-known incident in cricket as the context.